Rihanna’s Instagram picture with a rare animal causes arrests

A selfie of Rihanna with an endangered animal has led to the arrest of two people.

The Diamonds star, 25, sparked controversy by posing with a slow loris, which is a large-eyed, squirrel-like animal, while in Thailand.

She uploaded the shot to her Instagram page and said: ‘Look who was talkin dirty to me! #Thailand #nightlife.’

But despite attracting 227,000 likes on the picture-sharing site, the people involved in providing the slow loris were detained for crimes against animals.

‘Authorities were alerted to the picture and last night police arrested the two individuals who brought out the loris as a photo opportunity for tourists,’ said Weera Kerdsirimongkon, the chief of the Phuket district police, in a statement.

Police have since confiscated two of the furry creatures. The men arrested, who were aged 16 and 20, could be fined £800 and may spend four years in jail for possessing the rare animals.

‘It’s like a cat-and-mouse game. But this time it’s bigger because a celebrity like Rihanna posted the picture and there were more than 200,000 likes from around the world,’ the district chief went on – explaining the need to clamp down on the illegal activity.

Rihanna also posed with a troupe of elephants on her wild night out as she took some time to relax during her world tour.

In the 19th century, one zoologist said that the slow loris had ‘the face of a bear, the hands of a monkey and the moves of a sloth.’